by Deb Billado
The liberation of Afghanistan from the control of the ruthless Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies in 2001 marked a turning point in American foreign policy. If you attack our cities, if you prohibit your own citizens from owning a satellite dish, if you condone throwing vats of acid in the faces of unveiled women, then you have lost all right to call yourself a government.
And we, as a nation, assumed the moral responsibility of displacing a terrorist government and protecting a people who had been subjected and tortured by their own politicians up until that point, rather than represented by them. For the first time, we introduced them to the concepts of elections, a legitimate constitution, and equal rights.
Put simply, even in the face of international opposition, we moved Afghanistan into a post-Taliban era. We showed the world what it meant to stand up for human rights.
And in just two weeks, Joe Biden caused 20 years of sacrifice and service to crumble to the ground.
Biden called our hurried evacuation a “success”–even former Obama advisor David Axelrod has said Biden needs to accept the responsibility of his mistakes.
Before vacationing at Camp David, Biden called it “highly unlikely” that the Taliban would take back control. Today, every major city in Afghanistan is under Taliban authority.
Instead of handling the crisis, the spokesperson for the Taliban has taken more questions from the press than our own President has. Imagine that.
And most recently, the U.S. Press Secretary–who was also on vacation–refused to commit as to whether or not we would safely evacuate all Americans from the country.
The military achievements and civil struggle that brought this country back from the dark ages have been underdone and reversed in a record amount of time. Afghanistan is regressing and devolving back into a state run by theocratic dictators with unspeakable callousness and indifference to the well-being of their own citizens.
In. Just. Two. Weeks.
Perhaps most nauseating–and frightening–is that our President treats this as an accomplishment. He sees the civilians clinging to U.S. airships–desperate for an escape from the totalitarianism they know awaits them–as a success.
In two weeks, we have effectively conceded the War in Afghanistan to the Taliban.
But even more egregious is that we are dangerously close to a “draw” when it comes to the moral cause. After all, if the leader of our nation finds the institutionalized torture of other human beings to be a “successful” foreign policy decision, how we can claim any moral authority at all as a nation? How can we ever look into the eyes of the civilians in Afghanistan–and the citizens of our own country–that we left behind?
The answer: we can’t.
Until Joe Biden accepts accountability and responsibility for his unforgivable actions, our so-called political leaders deserve the reservoir of shame that this action has brought upon them. Joe Biden deserves it most of all.
The author is chair of the Vermont Republican Party. She lives in Essex Junction.
Categories: Commentary
This is part of a deal with China.
Check out: “The Virginia Project”.
Joe Biden is an unmitigated geriatric imbecile, who has evidently learned nothing from the experiences that have been afforded to him. If there is a wrong side of an issue to be on, that’s where Joe twill be. Give me the volatility and polarity of Trump over the incompetence of this idiot any day.
Trump was just as incompetent. He arranged the release of 1000’s of imprisoned Taliban. That’s not all.
We deserve better.
This is way more than Biden accepting accountability and responsibility for his actions. It’s a Marxist Regime in the White House. Biden is a puppet, he is not making any decisions besides what ice cream he wants to eat.
What needs to be done is We the People need to Stand Up for the Constitution of the United States. Stand up against enemies foreign and domestic. This has gone way too far too fast and should have Never Happened.
Peacefully Stand Up. If We the People do not Stand Up We will loose our Country.
No is NO IS NO. We the People say NO to Marxism, NO to Leaving our fellow Americans in Afghanistan, NO to a Rigged 2020 Election, NO to Masks, Shots, CRT, Antifa, BLM, Progressivism, Socialism, Communism!
We the People are Americans, who work for a living, are business owners, pay taxes, are law abiding citizens of this Country and we say NO!
Are any of the GOP Branches in any State Standing Up? Where’s the Courage GOP?
Liberty is from God not men.
I’d like to address the Republican Chair. Klaus Schwab who is the global presenter of the “Great Reset” has stated that the majority of countries want one world global government where elites will dictate what your share of a minimalized standard of living you will be ALLOWED! He states that the USA stands in the way of that goal and must be taken down. Biden administration is totally onboard with the Klaus Schwab vision that is why they want 5.2 Trillion dollars that will devalue the wealth of all nations holding dollars. Of course CRT, masks, BLM etc, etc is morally devastating but that is not enough. The whole point of lockdowns and Biden wanting to raise capitol gains tax and hire 87,000 more IRS agents is to cripple the middle class. The whole point of becoming an embarrassment by design in Afghanistan is to have the rest of the world view us as unreliable and weak militarily. Remember years ago we promised to defend Saudi Arabia militarily in exchange for their promise to ONLY accept U.S. dollars for payment of oil energy. That is why the American dollar became the worlds reserve currency. Its the only reason why we can get away with printing fiat money. China and Russia are now poised to offer Saudi Arabia the same deal forcing the world to buy oil in Rubles or Yuan and if accepted the dollar will crash over night. Banks will close, dollars will become worthless and the USA will become a third world country overnight and world government will enslave humanity. Do you have a solution for that?
I have pondered pieces of this for quite awhile. Now you’ve provided more than I realized. Solution? Tax ultra-wealth more, small business less. Encourage genuine free enterprise and COMPLETELY reform the Republican Party. Maybe that will help.
Do you believe ‘government’ (Federal, State and Municipal) will invest our tax dollars more efficiently, and increase everyone’s standard of living more than can the ‘ultra-wealthy’? When is the last time Bernie Sanders, for example, created a home delivery system that rivals Amazon? Why does the USPS lose money while FedEx and UPS thrive? Amtrack?? When did Sanders last send a rocket to resupply the international space station, or develop electric vehicle technology? How charitable is Mr. Sanders with his own money? Why does he get to own three houses?
Other than employing government bureaucrats to redistribute the already massive tax revenues that have increased every year but one over the last 30 years, what has government contributed to society? – more bureaucrats? – a higher minimum wage, offset by even higher inflation? Higher Property Taxes? How are Vermont students doing in its government sanctioned monopoly, given one of the highest public education costs per student in the world? Yes, ‘in the world’.
Why don’t you make a specific and tangible recommendation as to where you think our money should be invested to create the greatest rate of return? – somewhere, for example, other than guarantying the investment returns of our government and teacher retirement programs, with ever higher taxes on all the rest of us. Why doesn’t the government guaranty the rate of return on my investments?
Here’s an idea. How about we give parents School Choice Tuition Vouchers that will lower the cost of education, decrease taxes, and increase student performance. Will you go for that? Can you convince Bernie Sanders, Pat Leahy, or Peter Welch to go along too? Let’s do that rather than always gravitating to the status quo – the ‘tax the ultra-wealthy’ mantra. They already pay the lion’s share of taxes as it is. Let’s concentrate first on investing that money wisely before asking for more.
Companies such as Amazon don’t need to be so profitable to exist and thrive. Gross tax revenues may increase but so does inflation.
Ultra-wealthy pay more taxes but even less percentage than ordinary people.
Concerning vouchers, they have traditionally been an efficient way to ease the burden on public schools.
You object to giving decent retirement income to people, but not to the unconscionable amount that individuals such as Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, etc, receive.
Furthermore, the functions of the USPS are entirely different than those of private sales of goods.